Last week, a Nashville juror raised a question to the judge. The fallout from that question led to the court ordering a new trial. The Tennessean reported one juror questioned why there were not any black jurors when the men accused of the crime were black. Once the juror voiced their concerns about the lack of

Yesterday , I posted a criminal law tip of the day on my office’s facebook page . I thought my next tip should be on the blog because it gives those facing criminal charges some advice on how to survive the criminal court process.

Today’s tip is to be early for court. If court starts at 9:00

The first two Rs’ were relax and rehearse. The third R is the ability to react. I had lunch with a civil lawyer a couple of weeks ago. The conversation turned to civil trials. He commented on there are no surprises in a civil trial .Everyone knows what is going to be said and done.

Recently , there has been some discussions among Tennessee criminal defense lawyers about a motion that has been filed by a Tennessee prosecutor. An Assistant District Attorney has filed a motion in limine to preclude the defense attorney from referring to the state’s attorney as " The Government’ during trial. The motion asserts that referring

The Cheatham County Commission recently approved Sheriff Holder’s request to hire a new police officer to patrol Interstate 40 in search for drug traffickers. The officer will work in conjunction with the Drug Interdiction Crime Enforcement (DICE) unit . The drug interdiction unit is made up of officers from the Dickson County Sheriff”s Office and  Humphrey’s

Sometimes people miss their court date in Tennessee . One question that comes up is what can I do about it and am I in trouble . Missing your court date can trigger an additional charge of  Failure to Appear . I recently wrote an article on the issue . You can click here

           

What does this guy’s brain have anything to do with the criminal trial tip of the day. Everything is the answer. More specifically it is Mens Rea . Don’t overlook the mens rea in every case. i almost did .

In preparing for a criminal trial , one gets caught up in witnesses

                                     

Article I Section 9 of the Tennessee Constitution guarantees a person accused of a criminal charge the right to a speedy trial.I recently filed a motion to dismiss in a cold case first degree murder case based upon a denial of his right to a speedy trial.There are four  factors that the criminal

                              

Sometimes police or law enforcement are mush like the spider.The spider creates the web and hopes it’s prey stumbles into the web where it can’t escape.Some of my clients in drug and patronizing prostitution cases assert they were entrapped into their criminal conduct.However, the defense of entrapment seldom applies.

The Entrapment Defense was first

https://youtube.com/watch?v=mnY8WINAgQg%3Ffs%3D1%26hl%3Den_US

A Davidson county jury returned a verdict in the Mark Chesnut shooting of attempted first degree murder. The co-defendant who shot Officer Chesnut plead guilty on the morning of trial. The key question that had to be determined by the jury was the defendant criminally responsible for the shooting. In Tennessee , a